Improbable Rendezvous
by Afalstein
Summary: It's the last day of Kurisu's stay in Japan. She's searched everywhere for the mysterious man who saved her, but nothing has come up and now it's time to move on. But suddenly, out of nowhere...
1. Improbable Rendezvous

**Improbable Rendezvous**

"Yes, Mother, I saw Father on the news." Makise Kurisu brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. "No, I'm not going to talk to the Russian ambassador. Why not—Mom, what would be the point? They're going to turn him away anyway, and without my thesis, it's not like..." Kurisu stopped on the street corner, listening to her cell phone. "What? Oh. Yes, it was mine. Of course it was. Well, I was going to, but now it seems..." Kurisu sighed and looked up at the sky. "...pointless. No, I didn't just sigh. Yes. Yes I know. I know, mom, I just..." Kurisu closed her eyes and bit her lip. "No, you're right. I know. It's his own fault."

"Right. Bye then." She paused just as she was taking the phone away. "What? Oh..." Kurisu blinked. "Oh wow. I... you're right. I had completely forgotten the flight was tomorrow already. Do... do you think..." She cast a nervous glance around the street, as if seeking for help from there. "Would it be all right if I stayed a little longer? I... can't leave just yet... just another week or..." The reply seemed to irritate her and her face took on a sour look. "I know, Mom! I know, but it's not like they found a body, and it just seems wrong to leave without finding out who that..." The answer rather deflated her. "Yes, I know. It's been over a month. I just..." She shook her head. "...I don't know how he managed to disappear like that."

She paused, listening. "Yes, mother. But he did save my life." A faint look of exasperation. "Yes, yes, and leave me stunned in a pool of blood. No... No, no, listen mother. Nothing like that... mother? I'm sure he didn't do anything like that. Well, no, I don't KNOW, but he didn't LOOK like a Hentai." She huffed a short breath.

"No, I haven't found anything new." Kurisu sighed. "No, I suppose not. Well, they haven't officially closed their investigation, but they haven't sent many updates recently. Yeah..." Kurisu lifted her head from the phone and stared about the street, seeing the thousands of people milling about. "...yeah, you're probably right. Okay. Tomorrow, then. Right. Love you too, mom."

She clicked off her phone and squinted up at the sky. Brilliantly clear. The last few days here in Akihabara had been very bright. Very hot, too, but then Kurisu had spent enough time in Texas for that to mean much less to her.

The last day. It'd sped by so fast. She'd delayed her trip twice already, but she really hadn't thought... Kurisu shook her head. No, her mother was right. She couldn't spend the rest of her life in a Japanese manga town trying to pay off some kind of life debt. It was time to move on and get back to her life.

Sighing, Kurisu started to walk, without any particular direction in mind. She could go back to the hotel, she supposed. She probably should—there was a lot to pack up and get ready. She wasn't even completely sure where her passport was anymore.

Ah, she could do that tonight. Right now, she could... what? What was she doing, now, exactly?

It wasn't usual for her to be purposeless like this. Makise Kurisu always had a plan, always had a purpose. Right now, the simplest plan was: go back to the hotel, pack, get a good night's sleep, and be sure to show up to the airport an hour or so early.

But there was an air of finality to that plan that Kurisu couldn't quite bring herself to adopt. She didn't want to give up on her quest. Not quite yet.

But what was she going to do now? She'd checked the hospitals, the dive hotels, even the morgue. No Hounin Kyouma. Even a google search brought up only the name of some crazy channeler who was posting as regularly as ever. Kurisu had searched every possible angle and she'd come no closer to finding her rescuer. Walking the streets was simply futile, she couldn't expect to just bump into the man among all the thousands here. Really, she should go to the hotel.

But for some reason, she couldn't. It was more than just a feeling of obligation, Kurisu felt a strange and strong NEED to find the man who saved her life, find out what he'd been doing there, how he'd managed to save her, WHY he'd risked his life to save her.

And why the hell did he look so damn familiar? Why was that face—pale, skinny, narrow cheekbones with deep-sunken eyes and tousled black hair—sticking in her head and in dreams and in memories where it had no damn place being to the point where she was practically seeing it on people passing on the street...!

Kurisu froze.

The face. She had seen it. Or had she? It was just a moment, but... that man, who'd just passed her... he...

Slowly, hesitatingly, Kurisu turned around, dreading the inevitable disappointment. The man was probably long out of sight already.

But he wasn't. He was standing, stock still, a few paces from where he'd passed her, and he was staring right back at her with an equally shocked expression.

Relief, exhiliration, and something she couldn't quite explain flooded Kurisu's veins. "I... I finally met you." She smiled, blinking back unexpected tears.

* * *

**A/N**: A quick little drabble. I just thought that it would be interesting to examine this scene from Kurisu's perspective. I had planned a multi-chapter fic which detailed more fully Kurisu having to meet and get acquainted with everyone all over again, but I got distracted and I'm pretty sure I'll never finish writing the other chapters, so I'll just stick this up now and call it good.


	2. Unstable Sustenance

**Unstable Sustenance**

* * *

"Come, Assistant!—"

"—why do you keep calling me that?"

"—let us seek refuge from the Organization and fortify ourselves with suitable brain-food inside this establishment!" Kurisu's "Savior" swept open the door and strode grandly inside.

A somewhat-disillusioned Kurisu follwed "Hounin Kyouma." She wasn't exactly sure WHAT she'd been expecting her savior to be, but a pretentious hipster pervert had not been high on the list. She hadn't been expecting him to choose a maid-cafe halfway across town, either, when she offered to buy him lunch.

Sighing, she followed the lab-coated madman, who was already talking earnestly with one of the cat-girl maids moving around the cafe. Well, at least she wouldn't feel the need to stick around anymore. She could give him this lunch, thank him properly, and get back to her life.

"Over here, Christina!" The man was calling, waving one long, gangly arm as he sat down at booth.

"For the last time, that's not my name." Kurisu answered, sitting down primly across from him.

Kyouma just gave a wicked smile. "You answered to it, didn't you?"

Kurisu felt her cheeks go hot and looked away. Why on earth had she done that, anyway? She'd snapped at him almost immediately, involuntarily. It wasn't like her to get nettled so easily. Or to respond to names she'd never heard before.

This man had her somewhat off balance, and Kurisu was not entirely sure she liked it.

She looked around to see Kyouma staring at her with an odd expression. "What?" She asked, irritated.

Kyouma just shook his head. "Nothing." He said, the hint of a smile twisting his mouth. "You... well, it..." He fidgeted with his phone a moment and then put it away. "It's... good to see you again." He said, finally.

"Likewise." Kurisu smiled, relieved at finding some sort of sane ground at last. "I wasn't sure I'd be able to find you."

"Me neither." Kyouma nodded. "I'd thought you'd be off to America by now."

"I'm leaving tomorrow." She answered. She noticed the crestfallen look on his face, but was distracted by a sudden realization. "Wait. How did you know I'd be going back to America?"

Kyouma eyed her. "You told me."

"I did?" Kurisu cast her mind back on her... limited interaction with this man. It wasn't like her to be so open about her plans. "I'm... pretty sure I didn't."

"No?" The man's face seemed to fall before being filled with a new light. "Ah, but of course! I learned it through the all-powerful, all-seeing demon's eye, Reading Steiner, which it is my curse to bear! It looks into your deepest secrets and exposes all your inmost fears!"

Aaaand there went the sanity. "Really? Tell me a secret about myself, then."

Kyouma's eyes suddenly narrowed. He leaned his tall, skinny frame over the table, staring into her eyes with a strange intensity. Kurisu, slightly uncomfortable, scooted back in her seat, but he leaned even farther forward. He was tall enough to lean over most of the small table and part of her bench.

Out of nowhere, a strange image floated into Kurisu's mind. _Hot breath warmskinwetlipshands drifting through herhairdon'tever forgetthis..._

"Ah-HA!" The man shouted suddenly. "You are a channeler!"

"Wh-what?!" spluttered Kurisu, taken totally off-guard. "I am not! What kind of lame secret is that, anyway?"

"Then why are you blushing?" The man turned his head to stare at her with one eye.

"N-none of your business!" Kurisu shouted back, trying violently to repress the reason for her blush. _Where the hell had that come from... _

"Your username is KuriGohan and Kamehanda!"

_How on earth_... "S-So what if it is?" She huffed, crossing her arms. "Anyway, that doesn't prove your Reading Steinburg whatever. That just proves you're a creepy hacker who traced my account." She hadn't considered it earlier, but now that she thought about it, it made perfect sense for her savior to be an obsessed stalker. He'd obviously been lurking in that hallway waiting for her, he'd shown up at the lecture, he...

Kurisu frowned. "You know," she said, looking at the man. "You never did explain what you were trying to tell me before the lecture. Or why you looked so sad."

The simple statement seemed to arrest Kyouma. He sat back and looked at her for a long moment. "How do you feel about time-travel?" He asked at last, in a quiet voice much different from his earlier raging.

"Time-travel?" Blinking, Kurisu tried to make sense of what seemed to be an abrupt topic change. "I... well, I suppose... It's really a broken concept. But then, time travel is such a general term. There are so many different sorts of 'time-travel' theories out there, you know, and all of them have very basic unsolvable problems. Kerr black holes, for instance..."

"So you don't believe time travel is possible, then." The man was watching her closely.

A little irritated at being interrupted in mid-lecture, Kurisu turned to glare at him. "No. At least not by any current models."

The man seemed disappointed somehow. "But you wrote a paper on it." He pointed out.

"Yes, but..." _How to explain that. How to explain all the motivations and thoughts and_... Kurisu shook her head. She didn't WANT to get into her reasons for writing that paper. "There are just too many problems associated with them."

"I see." Kyouma leant back in his seat with a sigh.

"Why do you ask?" Kurisu raised an eyebrow at him. _ He'd better not try to suggest what I think he is._

Kyouma looked at her thoughtfully. He was just opening his mouth when...

"Meowster and Meowstress! Are you ready to order, nya?"

Kurisu blinked at the pink-haired catgirl who'd somehow managed to bounce (not walk, bounce) right up to the table without her noticing. "I'm sorry?"

"Your meownu!" The catgirl prodded a paw at the pamphlet before Kurisu. "Have you decided what you want to eat?"

"I'm sorry, my Japanese is a little rusty sometimes." Kurisu tilted her head in disbelief. "Are you inserting 'meow' into debatably appropriate words?"

"Nya!" grinned the girl.

Kurisu blinked. "What kind of moronic..."

"I'll have the Chicken Teriyaki, and Kurisu will have the Ramen cup noodle." Kyouma rapidly interposed, handing her the menu.

"Ramen?" The waitress looked somewhat uncertain. "But... um... Feiris does not pawrpose to contradict Meowster, but... perhaps... your American friend would like something else?"

"Ramen will be fine." Kurisu assured her. "How do you know I'm American?"

"Nya! Your accent! The way you pawrnounce words."

"Oh." Kurisu felt a little nonplussed at being found out so easily. Then something else occurred to her. She turned to Kyouma. "How did you know I like..."

"Oh!" The catgirl interrupted her. "So you're also a lab mem?"

"Eh?" Kurisu glanced down at what the cat-girl was pointing at. The odd pin Kyouma'd given her, which on his insistence she'd stuck to the front of her blouse. "Oh... yes, I suppose I am." She glanced at Kyouma again, who simply grinned. "Is that what this thing means?"

"Nya!" beamed the cat-girl. "Feiris has one just like it, nya?" She indicated her apron. Sure enough, there was another of those strange pins. "Feiris is lab mem 007!"

"That's... great." Kurisu managed a smile." She turned to look at Kyouma. "You hand these out to ever girl you see, I suppose." She said, somewhat coldly.

"Nonsense, Assistant!" Kyouma shook his head. "Only eight of those pins, the secret sign of the almighty brotherhood of Future Gadget laboratories, exist in the world! And they are destined for eight special lab mems, destined by the Steins:Gate choice!"

"Steins:Gate?" There was that weird phrase again.

"Meowster!" The cat-girl's eyes opened very wide. "Feiris forgot to say! The Eight Kings of Pain were glimpsed atop the resonant Divergience! The Stonehenge Implacement is at hand!"

Kurisu gaped at the maid in astonishment. Surely EVERYONE in Japan couldn't be crazy.

"The Implacement, you say?" Kyouma tapped his chin in deep thought. "That could be trouble. I shall have to prepare the Dark Symphonic Converter. Make a note of that, Assistant!"

Kurisu would have gotten up right then, if she hadn't caught the wink from the cat-maid. Suddenly things fell into place. This was not a band of crazy maniacs, this was one crazy maniac and his feline enabler, who played along to get bigger tips. Part of her felt a little disgusted, the other part felt a strange sort of admiration for the girl.

For the moment, it was enough to convince her to remain seated. She could not help pointing out, though, that: "There's no such thing as a 'Dark Symphonic Converter.'" Kurisu could tolerate a fair amount of insanity, but she drew the line at bad science.

"So you say now, Assistant!" Kyouma tilted his chin victoriously. "But you shall say differently when you see our laboratory!"

"Laboratory?" Kurisu blinked.

"Meowster!?" Feiris stared at the lanky hipster. "You're allowing her to see the laboratory? What if she is one of the Nineteen? She could expose the Converter to contamination!"

For a moment, and it was only a moment, Kurisu saw annoyance flicker in Kyouma's eyes. But as he turned to look at Feiris, he was suddenly all smiles again. "But of course! She is my assistant! It is Stein's::Gate Choice! It would be strange if she was not shown the laboratory!" Turning on Kurisu, he announced: "You shall be shown every facet of our operation, Christina! Future Gadget laboratories will be laid bare! Only you must swear a blood oath not to speak of anything that you see there!"

Kurisu groaned and slumped deeper in her seat. It seemed paying back her savior would be more... complicated than she had anticipated.

* * *

**A/N: **And so will this story. I didn't really want to write more, but dangit, it's just so much fun! And actually the response to the last one was stronger than I thought. So what the heck, I'll turn this into a proper multi-chapter story. Short one... five chapters tops. But it should be fun.


	3. Reading Steiner

**Reading Steiner**

* * *

"I... really don't think this is on the way to your lab." Kurisu grumbled.

"Really?" Kyouma looked at her. "And how would you know? Have you been there before?"

"...No." Kurisu admitted with a sigh. "Just call it a feeling. Anyway, why did we have to walk? Couldn't we have taken the train?"

"No, foolish Assistant! Trains are tools of the Organization! Assassins lurk within every train station, waiting to trap the faithful! Besides, walking is good for exercise."

"Easy for you to say," answered Kurisu, struggling to match the long-legged man's pace. "Look. it's just I rather this didn't take too long. I need to get back in time to pack."

There was a short pause. "...pack. Of course. For your flight." Kyouma's tone seemed odd somehow, but when she looked at him, his face looked utterly normal. "What time does your flight leave, did you say?"

"I didn't say, and not only that, it would highly improper of me TO say." Kurisu snapped, stopping short. "Not to mention rude of you to ask. Why don't you find out with your Reading Steiner thing?"

"You mock me, Assistant! More, you mock the power of Reading Steiner." Kyouma looked grave. "It is not to be used for such trivial matters as ascertaining a subordinate's travel plans."

"First of all, and for the last time, I'm not your subordinate. Never was, never will be." Kurisu raised a finger. "Second of all..." she raised another finger. "...how is Reading Steiner too important for my travel plans, but not too important for my internet history?"

The question seemed to catch Kyouma off-guard, and Kurisu caught herself smiling victoriously. Though she didn't want to admit it, that channel discovery had rattled her badly, and she was desperately curious as to how this pretentious hipster had actually found it out. He was hiding something, she was certain.

Kyouma quickly regained his composure. "Because, my dear Christina—"

"—third of all, that's not my name—"

"—because while your history is set in stone, your future is not." He leaned forward and smiled gently, flustering Kurisu most inexplicably. "But if I had to guess, I would say that in your future, you will not take that flight."

"I most certainly will." Kurisu snapped, fighting down an irrational flash of terror. That hadn't been a threat. Probably.

"We shall see, shall we not?" Kyouma grinned. "Come!" He raised himself erect and pointed down the road. "The first destination on our journey of destiny awaits!"

Kurisu groaned and followed after.

* * *

"So... you're not a girl."

Ruka seemed embarrassed. "N-no." He admitted softly.

"Ah-heh." Kurisu had the grace to look embarrassed. "Sorry, it's just..." She coughed. "So... you and Kyouma... you're not..."

Ruka's eyes widened. "N-n-n-no! Of course not! That would be wrong! It would be..." He spluttered for words. "N-no. Sensei is my sensei. Nothing more."

Kurisu followed his adoring gaze to Kyouma's distant form, standing at the entrance to the shrine and talking animatedly into his phone. She had to wonder. Not about anything going on—she believed that part. But something about Ruka's expression rather belied his apparent disgust.

"Why do you ask?" Ruka questioned unexpectedly.

"Huh? Oh, ah... just wondering." Kurisu mentally kicked herself. "So sensei schools you in... what, exactly?"

"Oh, all sorts of things!" Ruka's face lit up. "How to pass coded messages, how to exorcise demons... mostly, we practice with Samidare, the demon-slaying sword!"

"Really." Kurisu was divided as whether to blame Kyouma's delusions on his friends, or his friends' delusions on Kyouma. She supposed it was a vicious cycle of some sort. "Lab work too?" She asked.

"Oh no!" Ruka's face was wide again, this time with wonder. "I am not worthy to be versed in the exalted secrets of the Future Gadget Laboratories!"

Kurisu frowned. "But you're a lab mem..." She indicated the golden pin affixed to the boy (?)'s gown. "...aren't you?"

"Oh yes!" Ruka flushed, fingering the badge with obvious affection. "But that is only through the extraordinary generosity of sensei! I have never worked in the lab, but he came by today and gave me this, saying that I was an eternal comrade of the lab." A smile of pure joy glimmered across the boy's face. "I shall never forget it."

"Heh." A smile graced Kurisu's lips. The "boy" looked so sweet, smiling like that. Obviously the poor child was shy... he'd probably been teased relentlessly growing up. His father dressing him in girl's clothes all the time couldn't help. Kyouma was probably one of his few friends...

Ruka shifted uncomfortably. "U-u-um... wh-why... why are you st-staring at me?"

"Huh?" Kurisu blinked. "Oh, um, no reason."

But Ruka didn't seem to believe her. "I'm strange, I know." He answered, hanging his head.

"No, no, that's not it..."

And suddenly Kurisu realized how completely "not it" that was. It was not that Ruka was strange, it was, in fact, that Ruka was not strange enough. For some reason this felt perfectly natural and expected, this girl-who-was-a-boy-with-a-crush-on-another-boy-but-in-denial. She wasn't shocked by any of this, only... slightly bemused.

To put it simply, Ruka seemed oddly... familiar.

"...that's... not it at all." Kurisu wrenched her thoughts back to the moment with an effort. "It... don't worry about it, okay? It doesn't matter."

That evoked a smile. "That's what sensei said." Ruka answered, looking over again at Kyouma. "When we first met. He said, 'it doesn't matter.'"

"Really." Kurisu felt a tiny warming of her heart for Kyouma. Sure, perhaps the man was crazy, but he'd taken this poor bishi under his wing.

"He's wrong." Ruka said abruptly, his face suddenly hopelessly sad.

"Wh-what?" Kurisu was taken by surprise and looked at him askance. "No, that sort of thing doesn't matter at..."

"Yes, it does." Ruka answered, closing his eyes. "If I was a girl, it would matter to sensei."

"It would... oh." Feeling dangerously embarrassed by the line of conversation, she shrugged her shoulders. "Y-you don't know that."

"Yes, I do." Ruka answered. He turned away. "If I was a girl... maybe he'd look at me like he's looking at you."

* * *

"...look, just whip something up, okay? I don't care what, just... nothing with microwaves!" Kyouma threw her an anxious look as she approached. "Okaygottagobye!"

"What was that about microwaves?" Kurisu frowned.

"Nothing important!" Kyouma insisted, folding up his phone and stowing it in his voluminous labcoat. "Just ordering the other lab mems to prepare the laboratory for your arrival." He looked at her. "Did you have a nice visit with Ruka-chan?"

"Oh yes." Kurisu threw a look over her shoulder at the boy sweeping the steps of the shrine. "Er... has he ever been to the States?"

"Oh no." Kyouma shook his head. "He and his father have always been here to tend the shrine." A curious light entered his eyes. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason." Kurisu shrugged. But her eyes were still studying the boy. _What was so irresistably familiar about him?_

"Come, Assistant!" Kyouma once again struck a pose. "Future Gadget laboratories awaits!"

"Yay."

* * *

"Okay, that shrine was _definitely_ not on the way." Kurisu gasped, half-an-hour later, as she and Kyouma sat, exhausted, on a handy bench. "Why did we go there again?"

"To see Ruka-chan!" Kyouma managed to pant. "And to throw off the agents of the Organization!"

Kurisu looked at him, puzzled. "Won't that just lead them to Ruka and put her in danger?"

Kyouma appeared stumped by that one. "Eh... Well... they won't... the sword of... of... ahh, it doesn't matter." He shrugged. "Ruka can handle herself. Himself." He corrected.

"What..." Kurisu stared at him. This sudden apathy appeared very unusual.

"Come!" He stood with a little burst of energy. "It is not far."

"You said that half-an-hour ago..." Kurisu groaned, standing nonetheless. "Why can't we simply take the subway?"

"Too many agents of the Organization! Now come!"

Kurisu clenched her teeth and followed the madman. "He saved your life, he saved your life, he saved your life..." She repeated to herself.

* * *

"Behold! Future Gadget Laboratories!"

"A Cathode Ray Tube shop?"

"What?" Kyouma glanced at her in surprise. "No! It's... No, see, it's upstairs. The television store is run by the guy who owns the place. We rent from him."

"I see." On one level, Kurisu felt she should probably be disappointed about how... un-impressive the much-vaunted Future Gadget Laboratories looked. It was barely even two stories high, and the building was in terrible repair.

She should be disappointed, after spending so much time and effort to reach it, but amazingly enough, she wasn't. Rather, she was caught up in a beautiful feeling of joyous euphoria as she stared at the rickety, outmoded, ugly little deathtrap.

_What is wrong with me?_

"Ah! And there is mister Braun!" Kyouma waved wildly. "Good evening, Mr. Bruan!"

A burly man was just exiting the CRT store, followed closely by a small girl and a...

_...bang a pop of red and purple on a white shirtfront like a doll with strings cut years of torture..._

Kurisu actually stopped short at the sudden wave of hostility she felt as the curly-haired blonde behind "Mr. Braun" came into view. The pale skin, the subdued body language, the black glasses, the pink-and-purple phone pressed into her hand... All of these filled Kurisu with a wave of almost violent animosity. And... fear, she realized.

"Kurisu?"

She came out of her reflections with a start. Kyouma was studying her with a questioning... no, an inquisitive... no, a curious look. Almost... oddly hungry.

"Are you alright?" He asked, and she found herself surprised by the tenderness in his voice.

"I'm fine." She managed. "Just... um... why don't you introduce me to them?"

"Of course!" Kyouma took her by the hand, and Kurisu followed, struggling to master her irrational feelings.

"Mister Braun!" Kyouma announced loudly as they approached the group. "I must present to you FGL's newest lab mem, Christina, my assistant!"

She closed her eyes. "My name is Makise Kurisu." She said, offering the man a polite smile.

"Pleased to meet you." The man's easy smile relieved a lot of the unease generated by his massive bulk. "But, eh, why're you hanging out with this loser?" He jerked his head at Kyouma.

Kurisu's smile grew wider, relieved at finally finding someone who seemed relatively sane. "Kyouma-san helped me with something." She answered. "Now I'm helping him."

"Good luck with that. He needs it." Mr. Braun half turned as his daughter hid behind him. "Ah, you'll have to forgive my daughter, she's a little shy."

"Quite understandable." Kurisu shook her head. Actually the small girl creeped her out a little, though again, she could not have said why. It seemed to be her day for irrational judgments of people.

"Well, this is MY assistant." Mr. Braun gestured to the blonde, who looked up in surprise at his motion. "Moeka just started here, but so far she's fit in like one of the family. A sight more useful than this lazy ass." He glared at Kyouma.

Kurisu hoped her smile was not too forced. "Good to meet you also." She said, extending her hand to the girl.

Moeka did not answer right away, she was looking at Kurisu with a far-off expression, and when she noticed the hand she shied away just a little, but then she shook it. "G-good to m-meet you." She replied, brow furrowed.

Kurisu's heart was pounding, and she could feel her teeth clenching a little, but even through all that, her brain was sufficiently engaged to realize one thing.

Moeka was trying to remember her.


End file.
